Academia, Society

Report: 23 Baltimore Schools Had Zero Students Proficient in Math

I recently wrote about how public schools and boards are making the case for school choice advocates with failing scores and rising controversies. The latest shocking statistic was released this week that 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math. Those schools include 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three Middle/High schools and two Elementary/Middle schools. The state found that 2,000 students who took the state test could not do math at grade level.

We previously discussed the Baltimore public educational system as an example of where billions of dollars have been spent on a system that continues to have appalling scores and standards. Recent data now offers another chilling statistic: 41 percent of students in the Baltimore system have a 1.0 (D) GPA or less.

We also discussed how a high school student almost graduated near the top half of his class after failing every class but three in four years. He had a 0.13 GPA. His mother objected and went public.

The top spending public school districts are also some of the worst performing school districts.  New York topped the per capita spending at $24,040 per kid. Washington, D.C. is close at $22,759.  Baltimore is often ranked in the top three per capita spending districts. The total budget for Baltimore public schools is roughly $1.2 billion. That is for a city with a total population of roughly 600,000 (The greater Baltimore metropolitan area is 2.8 million). In 2015, the school population was 84,000 kids.

Faced with school boards and teacher unions resisting parental objections to school policies over curriculum and social issues, states are on the brink of a transformative change. For years, boards and teacher unions have treated parents as unwelcome interlopers in their children’s education.

That view was captured this month in the comment of Iowa school board member Rachel Wall, who said: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.”

State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) tweeted: “If parents want to ‘have a say’ in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.”

As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”

Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.

Reports like the one out of Baltimore only fuel this trend to allow desperate parents to find alternatives for their children. It is a failure on a colossal scale. Yet, there is little accountability for the elected officials in these cities as generations are left with little future without basic skills.

Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. That cannot continue much longer before parents look for alternatives.

 

250 thoughts on “Report: 23 Baltimore Schools Had Zero Students Proficient in Math”

  1. “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves: and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their controul with a wholsome discretion, the remedy is, not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. this is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” Thomas Jefferson

    “if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be.” Thomas Jefferson

  2. It is not just Baltimore schools.
    Bloomberg just had an article, using DOE data, 49% of students “are performing below grade level in at least one academic subject.”
    Even early in the COVID lockdowns, studies showed students falling behind. We may have set an entire generation behind.

    While my children are grown and on their own, I do not mind paying taxes for schools. As long as they are getting quality education. In light of wokeism indoctrination, I fully support school choice, and parents given the ability to use money to get the best education they can for their children.

    1. As of 5 years ago, 25% of 4-year college classes were remedial-level courses.

      The libs are turning the entire nation into Detroit, B’more, Philly, St.L, Memphis, NOLA, etc… It’s what they do, the consume your money and crap crap everywhere. Just look at the results of their progroms everywhere, anywhere.

  3. And if a real journalist were to expose the scam that is “public education,” and point out the failing marks of almost half the students in this country, there would be cries of “racism” and “white supremacy” to the rooftops. There’s no way any Democratic politician would dive any deeper into the public ed problem, just as they refuse to address crime beyond the “gun control” scam.

    1. Dan Rather (as close to real as I can get on short notice) did an expose on the Detroit Schools 11 years ago called “A National Disgrace.”

      The title made it seem like Detroit was somehow this outlier school district, when the reality is that it is a typical one.

      There is a reason that Charter Schools gained a lot of momentum in Michigan.

  4. Generational dependency is today labeled “white supremacy,” the wolf, now fully domesticated, but wags his tail for a bone… underperformance, canary in the coal mine, as harbinger of what? And you know what I see? I see a subculture that has allowed itself to be decimated by drugs and alcohol. And those very same who’ve robbed them of their independence, and their dignity, while stripping them of the need to be educated, the need to enter the fray as “tools of society,” to reap profit and benefit as economically engaged, is now openly importing enough fentanyl to entirely relieve themselves of political burden. We could expound on this, discuss conservative as wellhead of “liberal,” civility as evolutionary, the product of a prosperity born of free enterprise, innovation unbridled and unleashed, etc. and etc. But, who suffers here? Well, we all do. And this is where rubber meets the road, where concepts of “tough love” find form, only to be undermined by the politically corrupt who seek to self-empower to self-enrich buying votes with revenue, the somewhat less-than-voluntary contributions of society at large. Or, with that which is newly minted and printed, secured on the backs of working Americans, while all the while deflating value of not just the medium but the very labor which grants it life. The problem my friends is that we’re allowing politics to destroy us.

    Setting ye olde “demographics” question or factor aside entirely, let me ask you something, why is it the children of the wealthy so often develop as not just rebellious, which is entirely natural and necessary, but also angry and indifferent? Is that we so severely inhibit the happy as cloaked, enslaved, in economic dependency? Is it because we rob them of an emotionally necessary-to-fulfillment independence? Is there an analogy that can be drawn here?

  5. What can we expect from a society that believes Michelle Obama is oppressed, Elizabeth Warren is American Indian, Greta Thunberg is an authority on the climate, that George Floyd is a hero and Rachel Levine is a woman! WTF????

  6. “Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives . . .” (JT)

    A captive is one who is under the control of another. But what is that end or purpose? To control. To rule. To create an entire generation of blind followers.

    Tyrants are always threatened by those who are educated, who are intellectual (by those with “soft hands” or who wear glasses), by those who are independent and who ask questions. Tyrants want drones, those who are only fit for manual labor (who have “calloused hands”).

    It is no accident that anti-education “educators” are gutting mathematics. It is the subject of independent reasoning and objectivity.

    First you starve a young mind of facts, knowledge, independent thinking. You deprive it of intellectual curiosity. Then you fill the mindless with “what society needs them to know.” And what does a collectivist want them to “know?” That the Voices of the collective are omniscent and omnipotent. And that theirs is to obey.

    1. Sam: and once you substitute partisan activism and “social justice” programs for math and grammar, you have your voters and your shock troops for the future.

      1. “. . . once you substitute . . .”

        Good point.

        Our “shock troops” know nothing about the Founders, except how to topple their statues. They know nothing about Western art — where it came from, how it was created, what it means. But they do know how to deface it. They know nothing about how to create a business or an economy. But they do know how to torch cities. They know nothing about the meaning and importance of free speech. But they do know how to forcibly suppress it.

        They know nothing about man’s mind, about how to use it or its requirements. But they do know how to destroy it by subjecting it to coercion at every turn.

    2. Precisely what Mussolini’s first objective was to secure power for generations to come. And it has been used by other authoritarian rulers as well. In research on jstor, I ran across a rule book for teachers in the late 1920s in Italy.

  8. Dear Prof Turley,

    Thank goodness for Sirri and smart phones. They’re good at math, but susceptible to back-door algorithms .. . like we all are.

    No offense, but I’m more concerned about the well-educated people, presently. Not you, per se’, I’m sure you’re a fine teacher and worth every penny – in particular, your legal analysis/testimony on gov. ‘censorship by surrogate’ was timely.

    Some of your colleagues, however, seem a few playing cards short of a full deck. Laurance Tribe (prof Emeritus @ Harvard Law), for example, thinks Donald Trump’s apostles are a greater threat than Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany and would have no problem giving Ukraine president Zelenskiy low-yield tactical nuclear weapons next to fight Russia Putin’s unprovoked attack on freedom, democracy, Europe and the American way.

    *not real fond of Dershowitz and need I remind you Obama was the editor of Harvard Law review .. . must be something in water?

      1. I can’t imagine Wasserman-Shultz giving anyone a lesson an anything after her Awan emails scandal… and it only took her what, six months to fire him why? Because he had the goods on them all. But can you imagine? Entrusting the secrets of the entire DNC to an obviously unvetted Pakistani? Why would anyone do that?

      2. I believe this post is about the Baltimore Public Schools, not Twitter. Please send me the link to your widely read blog so I may follow you and your opinions. Thank you.

  9. The only way that they can get voters to actually believe that Biden, or the Democrats, are doing a good job is to keep them unable to analyze facts and issues . When you watch Biden or KJP lie without shame and you ponder how it is possible that they can say things that are so ridiculously non-sensical and so obviously dumb please realize that they are keeping their voters stupid.

    It is impossible that this is an accident or an unintended result, this is the plantation theory that is hand in glove with their financing policy of utilizing the teachers unions and their money. The Democrats get the money and uninformed voters, the teachers get money that is not commensurate with the results of their job performance and they go merely along.

    One last point on this issue is that the downfall of our education system is due to PUBLIC unions. Even FDR said you cannot have public unions. There is nobody representing the ultimate party responsible sitting at the negotiation table during contract talks. Liberals say that the elected officials represent the tax payers but in reality the “elected” officials keep getting elected due to teachers money and the game is rigged.

    End PUBLIC unions and let students take THEIR money with them to private schools and you will see results. Not a kid with a .03 GPA being almost in the top half of his class.

  10. This problem is only the manifestation of the much deeper demise of our crumbling society and family structure.

    The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

    Baltimore is rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

    1. What can we expect from a society that believes Biden is competent, Kamala Harris is African American, that Barrack Hussein Obama is more Black than White, that Greta Thunberg is an authority on the climate, that George Floyd is a hero and Rachel Levine is a woman! WTF????

  11. While the results clearly speak for themselves, amazingly accountability is nowhere to be found. Neither the school administrators, teachers, or students accept any real responsibility. Just keep throwing more money at education and Democratic legislators in Maryland dutifully pass more spending bills and blame “systemic racism” I guess. A very sad situation indeed. Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.

  12. Education use to be life or death.
    You saw to it, your children were educated or trained by their late teens. Because your children were your retirement account. The more productive your adult children were, the better you last years were.
    But the govt setting old age payments, took that incentive away.

    FDR rescued America with SS.
    The first check went out Jan, 1940. almost 4 generations later, 0 children are proficient in math. We have gone from the most literate Nation, to far down the list.
    Illiterate and innumerate. Is it any wonder the govt was able to shove non scientific covid restrictions down a compliant ignorant populace?

  13. That view was captured this month in the comment of Iowa school board member Rachel Wall, who said: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want

    She was debating against one of the first pieces of legislation in the new session that started in early January. Education $ following students to pay for private school tuition.
    The children won that debate. A step system over the next 4 years a growing % of tax$ will follow the student.

    1. As the food-chain collapses and time evolves these Children are the future breeders of
      Today we are in the 2cnd and 3rd generation of “familily” that have live their life on govt handouts. The federal govt creates this problem. Like every single govt program, it devolves from aide, to a burden on the people they set out to help.

      1. iowan2: “The federal govt creates this problem” — as the Democrats did when they instituted aid to families with dependent children. This is how Democrats work — get people dependent on your largesse, and they’ll keep voting for you. And along the way, the Dem welfare programs destroyed the black family by barring welfare to families where the father was living in the house. Another reason why, today, the Democrats would rather cry “white supremacy” than investigate the actual causes of social problems.

  15. There is a true crisis in the predominantly black inner cities with crime and ideological and thus ineffective education leading the way yet the Dims refuse to acknowledge any cause besides the mantra of “white people did it.” The truth is that every group in America rises by its own efforts and merit not by the government’s, if they rise at all. Black school performance, family cohesion and community criminal incidence all had better numbers in the 1950s under separate but equal laws than the numbers show today under desegregation. How do you square that with “white man bad” ideology? It’s a community in disarray and I’m not convinced that blaming whites and demanding they do more helps or will ever help the situation.

    1. Careful, you’re making sense & sounding a bit like what Cliven Bundy was saying at the Battle of Bunkervile Nv.

      Next thing you know they’ll also be calling you a Racist. LOL;)

    2. If you look at the article to which Turley links, there are yet another 20 Baltimore schools with only one or two students proficient in math. These data are shocking, even to those who have been following the grim statistics for public schools in a number of cities.

      Roland Fryer did a wonderful study a little over 10 years ago, showing that applying best charter school practices to Houston public schools could improve math achievement significantly. These principles involved hiring better teaches, having high expectations, using data to target interventions and more “time on task”. Very basic concepts. To do this, he was given total control over the school system.

      Thomas Sowell’s recent comparison of NYC charter and public schools also shows how charter school practices lead to dramatically better results.

      The reason this problem is not solved is political. The administrative educational establishment and the teachers unions are not interested in making these required changes, because they do not want to lose their jobs or be otherwise held to standards they would find it challenging to meet. “Wokism” may be part of this problem, but I believe the bigger part is the lack of political will to take on entrenched interests defending their turf.

      1. Another big problem is that many black kids are led to believe that taking education seriously means you are trying to be White.

    3. Mespo– I agree entirely. You will recall that in the 1960s Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a report in which he said, “[t]he fundamental problem, in which this is most clearly the case, is that of family structure. The evidence—not final, but powerfully persuasive—is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling.” The situation appears worse today than it was then, as illustrated by the fact that in 1965 only 24% of black mothers giving birth were unwed; today the number is 72%. In my opinion, another contributing cause is that we are several generations deep into affirmative action, including in our school systems. I wonder how many of the Baltimore teachers got their degrees more because they were a certain color rather than for achievement. It is entirely possible most of them simply do not know how to teach. When the political power that we have allowed teachers’ unions to have is added to the mix, there is little hope that anything will or even can change.

  16. This is failure across the entire school system. The student have always been there and willing to learn if given half the chance to do it. They have been failed by teachers that don’t teach knowledge but instead teach blame, victimhood, and lack of accountability. The students who disrupt and terrorize their fellow students and teachers and are never called to account for their actions. The teachers who are willing to indoctrinate and not teach the knowledge they have been trained to deliver and are not held accountable by their colleagues and administrators. The administrators who fail to push appropriate teaching and student management and simply walk in place going nowhere. School boards that are incompetent and push this incompetence and indoctrination. And ultimately the voters who keep electing them and continue to support failure. Yes, I believe parents should have the money and power to take their children anywhere for their education. The difficulty is who controls the disbursement of funds to parents and schools. What are the requirements of the private or alternative schools? Are the same people who run the failing systems going to control the disbursements of funds to parents who decide to go elsewhere? Will schools be licensed by states , cities or counties that already have failed their students? And a host of other questions. The incompetents will not go quietly and will fight this change every step of the way. A lot to decide and design to make this successful for the most children possible.

  18. Should I go ahead and apologize now for the white supremacists that are keeping the children down?

  19. Retort: 23 Baltimore Schools Had Zero Teachers Proficient in Math.

    This is why public school education is being dumbed down all across blue America – to cover for the diverse, equitable, and inclusive mediocrities who can’t make it anywhere else..

    1. Please be a bit more kind. Let Svalez, Anonymous and Gigi explain how it is Trump’s fault, or that Professor Turley is a racist for even observing those data, before you make such a judgment.

      1. Wiseold, once again you are making a great point! I will only add that Svelaz and Anonymous will not only do as you say, they will do it in about 200 comments each and they will do it nastily, pedantically, pretentiously and arrogantly. I guarantee that Svelaz will comment 200 times on this issue before the end of the day. He is a contrarian oddball.

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